“Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources” ― Albert Einstein

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“Many creative scientists say that the difference between them and their less creative peers is the ability to separate good ideas from bad ones, so they don’t wast much time exploring blind alleys.” (C, M. 1997).

All creative processes have their limiting factors/constrains that shape how the end product comes together; whether its time, budget, technologies, the consumers, or many more. These factors can be seen as limits or they can be used as rules that can cause greater creativity (working around the rules), the process of creativity to happen faster, can promote discovery/invention, etc.

The most creative people use rules to their benefit and don’t allow a constraint or limiting factor to inhibit them. Many make their own rules for creating where the chosen factors shapes their products style. An interior designers might choose to only used recycled, enviro friendly products, or an artist might only paint with certain colours or with certain paints. A good example of this practice is the cartoon series “Tin Tin” created by cartoonist Georges Remi “Herge”. He was know for his “clear line style” which is seen in his heavy ink strokes for the characters and a more precise realistic style for the inorganic surroundings. Hergé saw the cartoon as an art form, in which forms and figures must work together harmoniously. “One tries to eliminate everything that’s graphically redundant, to stylize as much as possible, and to choose the line that’s most expressive.”

Find an example of a company or individual in your area? Philippe starck- interior & product designer

Discuss the example and how the rules apply / have been broken and to what eﬀect? How have they negotiated the limitations of your ﬁeld?

“… From everyday products such as furniture and lemon squeezers, to revolutionary mega-yachts,micro wind turbines, electric cars, and hotels that aspire to be wondrous, stimulating and intensely vibrant places, Starck never ceases to push the boundaries and criteria of contemporary design. His technological miracles are vectors of democratic ecology, focused on action and a respect for the future of both humans and nature.”

Philippe Starck the famous Spatial designer is known for his innovative and functional yet boundary pushing and rule breaking designs. Its obvious as you admire Starck’s works that they all carry a familiar style, you could view his furniture or observe some of his remarkable interiors and intrinsically know they are his creations. Although stark prides himself on addressing his clients needs and the contextual factors of a project .e.g. the more conservative character of state apartments or the more flamboyant tone needed for a trendy nightclub. He does have some constraints that have developed to shape his work. Fluid lines, organic forms, bold colour, and subtle playful details are all key featured of Starck’s works. For example, in the Delano Hotel, in Miami beach Florida, each room has a metal apple holder affixed to the wall; the phrase “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is printed on the holder, promising a daily replenishment of apples.

Stark is also very well known for his masterful use of industrial styling, Marseilles’s Mamma Shelter hotel, Paris is an incredible example of this. Starck’s aim was to create a welcoming space, that encourages mingling and is open to people of all cultures. He combined industrial style rules; minimalism, different surface types and textures, straight lines, clean flat surfaces, aluminium, metals, exposed brick and wood. With his own personal flair that breaks the rules of the industrial look, but reflects Starck’s well loved style with its world wide success. You wont often see bright bold colours in industrial spaces but Starck uses them in a way to highlight features and bring a sense of fun that is needed in in the area. He mixes industrial furniture with brightly painted furniture, he contrasts dark shadows and dim lighting with fluorescent lights and neon’s. On each floor there is a different colour scheme with rooms featuring bright coloured walls and objects also coloured brightly-even lit fluorescently. Another detail that makes Starck’s work distinctly his is the inclusion of fun and humorous objects. In the bar area you see brightly coloured inflatable rings threaded onto above head poles. In the restaurant/dinning area he has hanging fluorescent tea pot lights and on one floor there is a chicken theme with giant chicken portraits and chicken prints on chairs and curtains. In some bed rooms there are super hero masks as bed side lamps and through one of the floors he has used the ceiling as a black board where graffiti, writing and drawings are featured. If you observe this amazingly created place you can appreciate how it meets the clients needs, its warm and inviting with its mood lighting and vibrant atmosphere, its open but enticing as colours and lighting draw you in, its trendy and modern yet has an environment that could suit most cultures. Starck’s edge gives the hotel its unique, fun and vibrant feel, without the rules that Starck plays by this hotel could just be a cold and uninviting industrial styled place. Starck used the rules of industrial style to his advantage, where he twists the genre and adds in his own bravura to create something amazing!